9 Reasons Why We Need Feminism More Now Than Ever

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes have a hard time articulating my arguments about feminism in the heat of the moment. If someone says something like “women are already equal to men” or “we don’t need feminism anymore,” I want to come back at them fully armed with facts and statistics to prove that they’ve got it all wrong. I want to prove to them that people still experience discrimination, in tons of ways, based on their gender. I want them to understand that men have privilege, and white people have privilege, and wealthy people have privilege, (and straight people, and cis people) and that it’s not always about us. And I don’t know about you, but often times I don’t say any of these things because I’m afraid I won’t say them well enough. I don’t say these things because I don’t have any handy-dandy statistics that I can whip out of my back pocket to support my case. Instead, I imagine myself messing up or not being able to think of a response, and my anti-feminist acquaintance leaving the conversation and feeling reaffirmed in his own beliefs because I didn’t present mine well enough.

Girl, that stops today.

Below I have compiled a feminist cheat sheet of sorts, with lots of facts and links and statistics centered around proving why we still need feminism. I’d encourage you to record the facts you want to remember, add some of your own, and stick ‘em in that back pocket (or, you know, the notes app on your phone). Next time, at least we’ll feel fully armed.

Additionally, it’s important to point out that the choices of some women to work in less profitable careers, negotiate less, and work fewer hours are choices that are highly influenced by societal expectations about womanhood, and that’s definitely not the woman’s fault. For example, the wage gap increases as women get older and have children. This is partially because many women still do a disproportionate amount of the housework and childcare compared to their husbands, and end up quitting or decreasing their hours in order to balance it all. Men are perfectly capable of doing even amounts of housework as women, but often times, because of ‘the way things are’, they just don’t.

Not all women around the world have the same rights and opportunities
A common anti-feminist argument I see from women is, “feminists are always acting like victims and I’m not a victim.” Well girl, it’s great that you’ve been so lucky not to knowingly experience discrimination. Because the truth is, the majority of the world’s women don’t live the same lives as upper middle class, straight, cisgendered, white women living in the West. There are many women who do experience discrimination and abuse because of their gender as well as other parts of their identity. And this isn’t to say that women in other cultures are automatically oppressed, helpless, or in need of saving. No way. It just means that you can’t generalize about the experiences of different women. Just because you feel that sexism and discrimination haven’t had much affect on your life (even though they surely have in some ways) doesn’t mean they aren’t very real and scary and detrimental in the lives of other women.

There you go – a very (very) long feminist cheat sheet to help you articulate some of the many reasons why we still, and just as much as ever, need feminism.